the rest of the quaint village, Angela gathered all the kids for a quick snapshot in front of one of the homes.
Kylee motioned to her. “Mom, you get in this one too.”
Yes. Nowhere she’d rather be. Imagine if she’d said no to Eva’s crazy scheme to come to New Zealand. Where would they all be today instead? Certainly not in a place that resonated with the glory of creation all around them, the brilliant sun warming her hair, the greens so vibrant they almost looked fake, the magic of newness clustered tight around them.
The only thing that could have made today better was if Simon and his kids were here.
Stop it, Angela.
But she couldn’t help missing him, given she hadn’t seen the Kings at all in the last few weeks. That was Angela’s fault. She’d let Sherry take the kids over to hang out with Benjamin and Ella, but she hadn’t joined them.
When she wasn’t working with the kids on their schoolwork, she’d busied herself with preparing for the ultra-marathon—training sometimes twice a day, getting even more familiar with the general area where they assumed the race would be held, and contemplating the terrain. The preparation helped her feel slightly more in control of a situation that still felt so far beyond her abilities. No matter how hard they trained, this race would require everything she had and then some.
At least it provided a distraction from missing Simon.
Angela asked a woman nearby if she’d be willing to take a photo. When the woman agreed, Angela handed over her camera and hustled to join her children. She threw her arms around them, huddling her little chicks close. Lilly snuggled against her leg, Zach groaned good-naturedly, and Kylee squeezed her back. When the photos were snapped, it was almost difficult to let go.
Because it was only three weeks until the ultra-marathon. Which meant it was only about four and a half weeks until they returned to New York. To the cold weather. To forty-plus-hour weeks, if she resumed a similar schedule as before. To far less time spent with her children.
Lilly pointed to a pasture in the distance where several fluffs of white dotted the landscape. “Can we cuddle the sheep? Please, Mommy, please? The lady said we could.”
“After the tour ends, all right, baby? Chrissy said we could even help bottle-feed the baby lambs. Would you like that?”
Her youngest daughter’s face lit brighter than it did on Christmas morning—quite a feat. “Yes!”
She and Zach sped off after the tour guides, toward the only building in the vicinity that wasn’t built into a hillside. On top sat a thatched roof and five or six chimney stacks. The many round windows and doorways, in addition to the pub’s location next to a pond, made it look like something out of a storybook, a place where beefy men with swords might gather to drink from large wooden mugs of frothy beer and make merry.
“Thanks for bringing us here, Mom.” Kylee walked the compacted dirt path next to Angela. “The kids are having a blast.”
“You have Aunt Eva to thank for all of it.” Angela considered her daughter: the way she seemed to walk more upright lately, her makeup simpler, her hair in fewer ponytails and more often down and curled around her shoulders. She’d called her younger siblings “kids”—and even though Angela would have put her oldest into that category a few months ago, she couldn’t say the same now. “And how about you?”
Her daughter shrugged. “I mean, I’m not all crazy about this stuff like Zach is, but it’s pretty cool.” She peeked up at Angela. “And it’s nice to have some family time away from everything else.”
“I know I’ve spent a lot of time training lately.” While the kids’ schoolwork hadn’t necessarily suffered because of the time she spent getting ready for the ultra-marathon—Sherry had helped fill in the gaps—today was one of the first times they’d done a trip purely for pleasure in . . . well, a long time. “I’m sorry for that.”
“You don’t have to be sorry. I already told you I think it’s cool you’re running this race for Dad.”
Some members of their tour group wanted to stop for a photo op, so everyone paused to linger. Kylee leaned against a little picket fence in front of one of the hobbit homes.
Angela eyed Zach and Lilly, who hopped up and down stone steps a few yards away. Then she swung her gaze back to Kylee. A bush next